When she takes the stage for her record release on Sunday, it will be, in some ways, a homecoming for musician Kate Weekes.

Weekes — who recently released her third solo album, Taken by Surprise — has called Kingston home a couple of times. Once, it was during her so-called “victory lap” after high school and she enrolled in the Theatre Complete program.

It was after that year she decided to head north after hearing that Whitehorse had a vibrant music community.

“I’d always been interested in the North, and I just wanted to go and check it out,” Weekes explained.

“I went up there, and, yes, indeed, there is a very strong musical community there, but I also discovered the wilderness up there.”

Enamoured with her new environs, she embarked on a two-week canoe trip from Whitehorse to Dawson City and “that just kind of sealed the deal for me.”

“I just wanted more. I spent a summer up there, and then it was, OK, I’ll try spending a winter, and then 12 years went by. I ended up becoming a dog musher and became deeply ingrained in the music community there,” she said.

Much of her second album, Frost on Black Fur, was about her experiences living in the North.

This time around, she expanded that to include, in part, her return to Ontario, which included a stint living in Kingston again.

“A lot of the writing for this album happened while I was in Norway working as a dog-mushing guide,” the Smiths Falls native said. “I think that had a big influence on the songs that came out as well. So there’s sort of a Scandinavian theme happening. And they were also written while I was doing a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts.”

There, she was studying how to combine jazz with folk music, around which she grew up as her parents were both folk musicians.

“I call myself a folk musician, but I don’t have a lot of songs that sound like classic folk songs,” she explained.

While she sometimes misses her life in the North, there’s one thing she doesn’t miss: the difficulty of finding someplace to play outside of Whitehorse.

“There’s not a lot,” said Weekes, who said travelling to gigs from her home in Wakefield, Que., is significantly easier. “There are a few communities where you can play, otherwise you’re flying to Vancouver or driving to Edmonton to tour.”

Weekes performs — along with multi-instrumentalist James Stephens, who produced her new album — on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Next Church, 89 Colborne St. Admission at the door is $20, $15 in advance. To learn more, go online to www.kateweekes.com.

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There are a lot of interesting concerts worth catching this week.

Saturday night, the Kingston Blues Society presents Raoul and the Big Time as they return to Kingston and the RCHA Club on Ontario Street. The cover is $20 and the music starts at 9. Also Saturday, Danny Michel plays a sold-out show at the Octave Theatre starting at 7:30 p.m.

While the Isabel has been busy hosting some of the ongoing Kingston Canadian Film Festival on Thursday and Friday nights, it welcomes the award-winning Smetana Trio to the Performance Hall’s stage on Saturday night. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Over at the “Spire,” Cantabile Choirs of Kingston performs “Star of County Down,” the Canadian debut of Bernie Sherlock, Cantabile’s conductor-in-residence. It also starts at 7:30. Tickets for adults are $22.

The Ale House welcomes a couple of concerts this week, too. The Reklaws bring their “Winter’s a Beach” tour on Tuesday as well as guests Jade Eagleson and East Adelaide. Tickets are $27.19 (really). The next night, it will be Wild Rivers, featuring Queen’s University alum Devan & Khalid. Tickets are $17.70 for the show, which sees the doors open at 8 p.m.

Also on Wednesday, across(ish) the street from the Ale House at Stages Nightclub, celebrated Dutch DJ and producer Oliver Heldens performs. And, just down Barrie Street, Reuben and the Dark will be at the Grad Club starting at 9:30 p.m.

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There will be a fundraiser Thursday for Theatre Kingston. Titled “A Cabaret of Wanton Words,” it features Selina Chiarelli and Josh Lyon performing inside the Rehearsal Hall of the Tett Centre at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 apiece.

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Centre culturel Frontenac is hosting a couple of events this week, too.

Saturday morning at 10:30, the Octave Theatre hosts “Le Bibliothecaire,” a show for children. Tickets are $7.50 for children, $15 for adults.

Friday’s show will be decidedly different. In honour of International Women’s Day, Ottawa-based Theatre du Trillium presents its play MILF on the Octave Theatre stage. It is a “play about three women, three mothers, three sexualities. It takes an unapologetic, poetic, and political stand against the taboo surrounding the relationship between motherhood and sexuality,” reads the description (and the show contains nudity and coarse language, too). There will be a discussion after the play featuring playwright Marjolaine Beauchamp and the actors. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $25 at the door.

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There will also be a new play opening in the Baby Grand on Wednesday. This is the Point: A play about love, sex & disability runs until Sunday.

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Lastly, the opening reception for a new exhibition titled “A Fine Pointed Belonging” — which “explores the negotiation of consensual representation and what is given to be seen,” reads the news release — takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre on Friday as well.